BIG GOVERNMENT/The FBI released surveillance video of a fundamentalist Mormon sect carrying out an $11 million food stamp fraud scheme after its ringleader had been sentenced to prison.
The video shows several women wearing old-fashioned, long dresses shopping at Meadowayne Dairy in Hildale, Utah, with one of the women exchanging food stamp benefits for a small bag before entering her car.
The FBI used a drone to follow the woman’s vehicle as she drove from the convenience store to a Bishop’s Storehouse run by the fundamentalist Mormon sect.
Surveillance footage caught her delivering the goods to another female member of the sect who loaded the items into a shipping container.
The agency recorded hundreds of hours of surveillance footage from hidden cameras smuggled into the sect’s stores and aerial drones. FBI agents also interviewed former members of the sect.
A judge sentenced Lyle Jeffs, the former polygamous sect leader believed to be behind the food stamp fraud, to nearly five years in prison Tuesday for conducting the scheme and going on the lam while awaiting trial.
Prosecutors accused Jeffs of running an $11 million food stamp scheme that involved transferring benefits to a communal warehouse and several front companies.
Former members of the sect claimed that Jeffs and other leaders used the money from the scam to dine on “shrimp and lobster” while others in the community starved.
The judge also ordered Jeffs to pay $1 million in restitution. VIDEO
What was in the bag? Let’s not forget that we all have home grown scofflaws that could turn terrorist in the blink of an eye. The polygamy sects that drain the social welfare system of every dime they can scam can turn violent if the leaders figure the government is getting too close. To be fair in most of these cases that pull up stakes and run to another state and start the scams over again but I do believe they are just as capable of violence as the next terrorist.
Following religious teachings?
what do you expect from a sect that gives up their female adolescent children to church leaders for sexual purposes. Morality is virtually nonexistent in this group.
So basically: -COMMUNISM.
Anonymous hits on something. Rumors out there of this sect, or one like it in Arizona, is tied to a child prostitution ring that that has lots of famous, rich and powerful as clients. How true it is, if at all, I do not know but am surprised by nothing anymore.
Mormonism is to Christianity as Islam is to Judaism. A corrupt offshoot.
The FLDS have tried to pick up stakes and relocate, but they have not found things as comfortable as the Arizona Strip (Warren Jeffs, their spiritual leader is serving life plus 20 years in Texas for sexual assault of two minors whom he “married”).
The next few years will be critical for them from steady physical, political, social and cultural encroachment as development creeps steadily toward them from St. George. If the Lake Powell to St George aqueduct is ever built, that would pretty much seal their fate, as development would spread rapidly from Hurricane to Kanab along UT59/AR389/US89A.
Polygamous sects are usually tolerated in the West, as long as they don’t break other laws. The perceived abuses in the State of Arizona’s raid on Colorado City/Hildale (then called Short Creek), in 1953 caused a backlash that allowed the FLDS extraordinary freedoms for several decades afterward.
Welfare fraud and sexual assault of minors tend to be the most prevalent and prosecuted crimes. Lately, both Utah and Arizona have been cooperating with federal authorities to break the hold the FLDS has had on local government, which they used as tools for control of the community.
Polygamous sects (and there are many) face a continuing problem in that the number of girls born into the community only slightly surpasses that of boys. Because of this, these communities regularly cull boys from their ranks as they approach manhood. In past years, they were simply turned loose in nearby communities to fend for themselves. They are referred to as Lost Boys. There has also been a concerted effort to facilitate women and girls leaving these sects. Interestingly, some of the women come to miss the “sisterhood” and return to the community, or encourage their husbands to take a second wife.
Polygamous sects have become violent. The LeBaron clan turned violent after a split in their church. In 1972, Ervil LeBaron began a “mansonesque” (Charles, not Marilyn) bloodletting within the polygamous community that continued for decades, leading to the gruesome deaths of at least 25.
I was at Pipe Springs National Monument (properly sized, by the way) with two of my children last Summer. We went on a tour of the fort with a group of young boys from Colorado City, accompanied by an older woman dressed in typical fashion. They were polite but didn’t say much. The NPS guide was a nice woman from New Zealand. There was a lot of of eye rolling as she went through her progressive revisionist presentation. If you are ever in that area, I would recommend the tour (with a grain of salt).
Later, on arriving home after a very long drive, I heard on the news that four children had died of food poisoning in Colorado City that day. I thought of those boys. It is definitely not an egalitarian society.
I’ve wondered about the Brown family of Sister Wives fame. How in the hell do they build huge luxurious homes for each wife, support a gazillion kids, some in college, drive expensive cars, and none of them work, including the stud master himself.
Major welfare fraud in that bunch.
Wait… my math education predates common rotten-to-the-core, but $11M in fraud and only $1M in restitution?
Hildale (Utah) and Colorado City (Arizona) are really the same town. They straddle the border between the two states. This creates certain advantages for the sect members that live there as they can evade state authorities by walking (or running) a few blocks to another member’s house. Their main church and meeting place is on the Utah side. I’ve been through these towns a couple times and it is very creepy. They have surveillance cameras at the entrance to monitor outsiders then follow you with large pickup trucks as you drive through. The large houses all have large walls around them and there are no commercial signs to designate places of businesses as they don’t want the patronage of outsiders. Young men are often “excommunicated” (thrown out because there weren’t enough young women to go around). A group of them live in St. George and run a bus tour of Hildale and Colorado City for tourists and do radio advertising. “Come see the Mormon polygamist cult.” Talk about getting back at your parents!
STRANGE RELIGION LIKE THE CHURCH OF ROME….
THE FALSE CHURCH…
What about the tablet found in the Mass.
woods by ole Joe Smith ?? What is the
story behind the “magic underwear” adults
wear ???
The Brown’s are part of the Apostolic United Brethren, headed by the Allred family. If Brown is a high ranking member, then he is probably supported by working members of his church. The current AUB leader denies allegations of welfare fraud, however, there are fairly detailed charges against their branch near Hamilton, Montana.
Some polygamist groups own a number of businesses and properties, as well as investments. This provides work for their members and income that supports church leaders.
The FLDS are probably the most noticeable of the major sects (though no more than a few thousand members), as they dress in period outfits and attempt to remain aloof from society.
The AUB and the Kingston family tend to practice a more stealthy polygamy, when needed.
The AUB has tried to be less objectionable recently by forbidding child brides and forced marriages, as well as welfare fraud. I don’t know to what extent that is actually observed among their members.
The Kingstons are an odd lot. They had compounds in the city I grew up in. They stayed pretty much to themselves. The are fairly secretive, mainly because they have forced child brides into marriage with close relatives — their were being line bred. At least, that is the claim. Some years ago, a teenage bride escaped a forced marriage with her uncle. Her father beat her when she protested. The father and the uncle both went to prison. They have also been accused of welfare fraud.
The favored status of Muslims in the US has given these sects new hope that polygamy will soon be legalized. If Hillary had won, their hopes may have already been realized. I’m sure Bubba would have advocated for it.